Why listing of KCSE candidates has been difficult

By Augustine Oduor

Nairobi, Kenya: This year’s KCSE examinations registration has been the toughest because of the stringent online listing requirements.

Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) Chief Executive Officer Paul Wasanga said all schools and examination centres were required to register online.

“We have never faced as many challenges before as not all schools were required to register online. We have, however, been upscaling online registration gradually. This year we want 100 per cent online registration,” he said.

He added: “The full online registration is meant to ensure that candidates adhere to the regulations in order to avert challenges such as withholding candidates’ results for failure to comply.”

Wasanga said the challenges being experienced are a result of the schools’ last-minute rush to beat the registration deadline overwhelming the portal. “This leads to slow response for those centres still uploading their data, particularly photographs,” he said.

Secondary school heads who spoke to The Standard said the biggest challenge was slow Internet speeds and uploading of photographs.

Server congestion

“One of the requirements was that all candidates’ photographs must be uploaded in the Knec-prescribed format and any deviation means registration is incomplete,” said a principal from Kakamega County.

Wasanga said even though the registration system automatically resizes the pictures uploaded, the quality of the photographs is still poor for the intended use.

“Some candidates were also allowed to take photographs without school uniform and that is unacceptable,” he said.

Also introduced this year was online payment of examination fees.

“Due to the last-minute uploading of bank deposit slips, there has been congestion on the server,” he added.

He, however, said the window for uploading deposit slips for KCPE and KCSE candidates would remain open until Friday.